Raikkonen can thwart Massa's hat-trick bid

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Formula One world champion Kimi Raikkonen can chalk up his third win of the season on Sunday and shatter Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa's dream of a Turkish Grand Prix hat-trick.

Brazilian Massa has won from pole position in Istanbul for the past two years but Raikkonen, winner with McLaren in the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix of 2005, has the momentum.

The Finn is nine points clear of McLaren's Lewis Hamilton after four races including the most recent in Spain that saw him dominate from pole position.

"Barcelona was a perfect weekend for me and the team," Raikkonen said on the Ferrari Web site (www.ferrari.com). "Now we want to keep that rhythm and we will push very hard.

"The pole position helped a lot and it seems that starting ahead of everybody else is a necessary condition for winning the race in Istanbul, too," he added.

"I won't change my approach. It's too early to think about anything else than a victory."

Massa, the winner in Bahrain, is 11 points adrift of Raikkonen and one behind third-placed Pole Robert Kubica for BMW Sauber.

Ferrari remain the clear favourites however, something acknowledged by their McLaren rivals: "We didn't really shine here in the past, and also this time we are not the current benchmark," said Mercedes motorsport vice-president Norbert Haug in a team preview.

"The team wants to score as many points as possible, but after three consecutive wins Ferrari obviously arrive here as the favourites."

FITNESS TEST

Hamilton wants to do better than last year, when he finished fifth in a race held in August when conditions were hotter.

Team mate Heikki Kovalainen faces a fitness test on Thursday before he can be sure of racing after the accident that knocked him unconscious in Spain.

"I want to get back racing as soon as possible, since the accident at Barcelona it has been my only focus," the Finn said last week.

McLaren have experienced Spanish test driver Pedro de la Rosa waiting for the call should Kovalainen fail the test.

Even if McLaren and Ferrari again dominate at Istanbul Park, the grid will look different after the struggling Honda-backed Super Aguri team withdrew from the world championship on Tuesday because of financial difficulties.

For the first time since 2005 there will be just 10 teams, with Japanese driver Takuma Sato and Britain's Anthony Davidson the absent drivers.

Honda's Brazilian Rubens Barrichello will celebrate a Formula One record with his 257th race start, one more than Italian Riccardo Patrese managed between 1977 and 1993.

"I will feel some sadness of course," Patrese told the autosport.com Web site. "I was pleased to keep the record but records are there to be beaten. And the only thing I can say is that I congratulate Rubens for doing it."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin; Editing by Sonia Oxley)